New opportunities in the AIGC era: How can small and beautiful products make money through membership models?

AIGC is undoubtedly the one that continues to dominate the screen this year. The arrival of new trends is bound to create some new opportunities. This article will explore the new opportunities in the AIGC era, that is, how small and beautiful products can make money through the membership model, and I hope it will be inspiring to you.

The hot search that continues to dominate the Internet this year is undoubtedly AIGC.

The emergence of AIGC products represented by ChatGPT and Midjourney has set off a new wave of AI technology transformation in the world, and has also given entrepreneurs a new impetus: reducing technology development and operating costs and meeting customers' personalized needs.

Are those who have given up on the Internet interested and eager to try to join in? Can you make money by making a product?

Today, we will explore new opportunities in the AIGC era, that is, how small and beautiful products can make money through the membership model. Whether you are an entrepreneur, product manager or marketer, you can get valuable dry goods.

Without further ado, let's go straight to the main text. Enjoy:

01 Advantages of the membership model

There are four common ways to make money on the Internet: advertising, games, e-commerce, and membership. After going through the barbaric era, as traffic becomes more and more expensive and more and more difficult to obtain, the paid membership business model is becoming a new round of dividends for the growth of various platforms or products.

Membership: By providing users with specific membership services or privileges, users are attracted to join and pay membership fees. Whether it is offline supermarkets, gyms, or various online film and television apps and life apps, I believe everyone has come into contact with this model.

1. What are the advantages of choosing a membership model for small and beautiful products?

If your product focuses on core functions and simple design, and is designed to serve a certain target group, perhaps you are suffering from the lack of high-quality advertising? Are you afraid of affecting the user experience? Are you short of funds and can't wait for financing, so you have to sell it to a big company?

Try the membership model. Compared with the traditional advertising model, it has the following advantages:

• Selling advertisements - drinking poison to quench thirst: Traditional advertising models often face problems of user immunity to advertisements and user churn. The membership model, on the other hand, attracts users to pay to become members by providing high-quality content and services, thus reducing reliance on advertising revenue.
• Selling memberships - loyal fans: The membership model can build loyalty and stickiness, and attract users to stay for a long time and enhance user value by providing unique membership benefits and personalized services.
• Create a stable source of income: Membership fees can provide a stable source of income for the product. Compared with a one-time transaction model, the membership model can bring a continuous income stream, increasing the predictability and stability of the product.

2. Is the membership model difficult to implement? What are the key points? Can it guarantee that users will pay successfully?

You may worry that users only like "free" products and will abandon them once they are charged. However, users who pay for products are customers, and it is also a way for both parties to recognize and screen each other.

The key point of the membership model is to simplify the payment process and improve the payment experience:

• Simplify the registration and payment process: Make sure the registration and payment process is simple and quick, and minimize the cumbersome steps and the need to fill in information. Provide a clear interface and guidance to help users easily complete registration and payment.
• Diverse payment options: Provide a variety of flexible payment options, such as one-time payment, monthly or annual subscription, to meet the needs and preferences of different users. Allow users to choose the payment method that suits them best and provide a flexible cancellation policy.
• Transparent pricing and value description: Clearly show users the membership fees and the privileges and benefits they enjoy, so that users know clearly why they need to pay and the value they get. Transparent pricing and value description can increase users' trust and understanding of payment.
• Provide good customer support: Establish an efficient customer support system to ensure that members can get timely help and answers during the payment process and when using membership privileges. Provide multiple contact methods, such as online chat, email or telephone support, so that users can contact the company at any time.

If the theory sounds a bit boring, you should understand it after reading a few successful cases.

02 Analysis of Successful Cases

By analyzing some successful cases, we can better understand the application and effect of the membership model in well-known products and small and beautiful products.

1. Membership model for well-known products

Airbnb is a well-known online short-term rental platform, Netflix is ​​a leading online streaming platform, and Amazon Prime is a membership launched by the e-commerce platform Amazon. The above three well-known products seem unrelated, but they have one thing in common: they provide a variety of benefits and services through a membership model, achieving user stickiness growth.

(1) Airbnb’s membership model

• Personalized experience: Airbnb collects members’ preferences and historical data to provide members with personalized accommodation recommendations and customized services to enhance user experience.
• Unique benefits: Members enjoy unique benefits such as special discounts, priority booking and exclusive events, which motivate users to become members and increase loyalty.
• Community interaction: encourage interaction and sharing among members, and enhance members' sense of belonging and loyalty.

(2) Netflix’s membership model

• Exclusive content: Netflix attracts users to become members and retains them by producing and purchasing exclusive content. This unique content library is the core value of membership.
• Personalized recommendations: Netflix uses algorithms to analyze members’ viewing history and ratings to provide members with personalized movie and TV show recommendations, improving user experience and retention rates.
• Ad-free experience: Netflix members can enjoy an ad-free viewing experience, providing a smooth and distraction-free entertainment environment.

(3) Amazon Prime membership model

• Fast delivery: Amazon Prime members can enjoy free fast delivery service, which improves shopping convenience and satisfaction.
• Diverse benefits: In addition to fast delivery, Amazon Prime members also enjoy a variety of benefits such as free e-books, music, video streaming, etc., providing a full-range membership experience.
• Cross-domain integration: Amazon Prime members can enjoy benefits in multiple areas, such as e-commerce, entertainment, reading, etc., which increases members’ sense of value and loyalty.

The membership models of Airbnb, Netflix, and Amazon Prime have all achieved great success. Their key success points include personalized experience, unique benefits, community interaction, diversified benefits, and cross-domain integration.

These key points together constitute important factors in attracting users, improving user experience and retention rate. Other products can learn from these successful points and create a membership model that fits their brand image and market positioning based on their own business characteristics and user needs, so as to achieve user growth and profitability improvement.

2. Membership model for small and beautiful products

At the WWDC22 Global Developer Conference, too many niche products stood out. Invisibly, a huge force is slowly rising, that is, small development teams and independent developers from all over the world.

Their products are small and beautiful, so small that they are supported by only one function, and so beautiful that you will completely forget that they are tool products.

Without tens of millions of dollars in marketing expenses and a research and development team of hundreds of people, can a small and beautiful product make money through a membership model?

Of course, here is the key design of the successful case:

(1) Answer Clock

Answer Clock is a beautifully designed clock app. Slogan: Accompany you in study, work and life.

It only has time and timing functions: free users can use basic templates, while various well-designed feature templates require membership: monthly membership & lifetime membership mode.

Monthly membership is easy to understand. In order to keep the product going, the subscription payment model was launched to generate continuous revenue. Lifetime membership is a buyout system, but as new features continue to increase, the original price is relatively low, and early buyout users will make more profit. In order to balance business and products and give it healthy development space, the monthly membership model was launched.

(2) Flomo·Floating Ink Notes

flomo is a card note for all platforms.

It focuses on helping you record more ideas and inspirations, and better review past records. Free users can use basic functions, while more storage space and special features require a pro annual membership.

In addition to paid membership, flomo also provides some free benefits: new users can try out the membership for a limited time, and they can get a free membership by inviting friends to register, which provides a handle for the product to expand and attract new users.

(3) AI helps

AI Help is a multi-functional text processing tool developed based on chatGPT and Midjourney.

It solves the word processing needs of Internet people in scenarios such as "weekly report writing, resume optimization, Xiaohongshu operation, daily communication, etc." Free users are limited to 30 uses per month, and the usage limit can be increased each month by upgrading to a monthly membership.

(4) A unique literary style

Wenxinyige is a drawing product developed based on the AIGC large model.

Users only need to enter their own creative text and select the desired painting style to quickly obtain the corresponding painting generated by a grid. Free users can try out basic functions and consume usage times. More special functions require membership.

In addition to paid membership, Wenxin Yige also provides some free benefits: signing in, sharing paintings, and participating in creative activities to get free trials, providing a handle for product fission, attracting new users, and promoting activation and retention.

03 Marketing and promotion strategies that you can understand at a glance

In a highly competitive market, how to conduct membership promotion and marketing for small and beautiful products has become a key consideration.

Compared with large enterprises, small and beautiful products usually have unique characteristics and core competitiveness, but may be limited in popularity and user base. Therefore, through clever membership promotion strategies, small and beautiful products can effectively attract more users and improve user engagement and loyalty.

STEP1: Develop an effective seed member recruitment plan

Through community building and interaction, we provide exclusive product discounts, customized services, early experience and other privileges to increase user engagement and loyalty.

STEP 2: Use social media and word-of-mouth promotion to expand your membership base

By actively participating in social media platforms, interacting and sharing with users, we can increase product exposure and user participation. At the same time, we encourage seed members to share the benefits and experience of products through word-of-mouth promotion to attract more potential users' attention and participation.

STEP3: Provide personalized membership promotion and marketing activities

For example, there are 1 yuan trial, monthly/annual membership plans, and promotional activities launched at important promotional nodes (such as 618/Double Eleven), such as group buying, pre-sales and buy-one-get-one-free, to attract users to pay and become members.

STEP 4: Use data analysis and personalized recommendation technology to improve member experience

Improve member experience and enhance user satisfaction and loyalty through continuous improvement and feedback.

04 Conclusion

Break the routine: Small and beautiful products can also achieve considerable revenue growth through the membership model!

Innovation, personalization and user value are the secrets to success. With a good idea, you don't need to spend too much on R&D, wait for financing, or sell advertisements. The key design of adding a "membership model" can also achieve a positive capital chain cycle. The trick to long-term operation is to deeply understand user needs, provide unique services, maintain close interaction with members, and continuously optimize products and marketing strategies.

I hope you can also seize the opportunity of this AIGC era, create a cooler experience for users, and create brilliance together! Come on!

The above is all the content of this issue of "Small and Beautiful Product Membership Model".